Genealogy Chat

Hi Guys

A friend of mine is trying to find out if she is a dopted, what's the easiest why to find out ( mother dead and father ill)

She was told at some point her sister was her mother so need to see if it was an offical adoption?

any tips welcolme!

I take it that she has a copy of her birth certificate and that her mother and father (who bought her up) are the parents named on it?

Sam x

I suppose, logically, can she find a birth reference for herself on Ancestry etc in the name she grew up as? If she can, and the mother's maiden name is right, that would suggest that she wasn't adopted.

she only has a "short" birth cert so no parents named. He mother maiden nname is the same as hers.......

She needs a copy of the full certificate.
If the parents were married, a birth index entry which shows the mother's maiden name the same as the surname, suggests that there may be some truth in the story, ...although they could be relatives of one another, eg. cousins who married.

A full certificate is the best hope of solving this. Is your friend prepared to learn what might have been a secret?

Gwyn

Sorry
...forgot to say.
..If she was adopted, the full certificate would probably have Adopted in the right-hand column.
Maybe her grandparents adopted her, ...although they may have just taken her on as their child without formal adoption.
If she was adopted, there should be a file, which only she has access to. This will give information about the adoption and perhaps too about any other children born to her natural mother.

Gwyn

It was not that unusual if the 'gran' was relatively young and still of child bearing age, for her to simply put about that she had given birth to a 'change' baby, i.e. one conceived when she was going through the change and 'did not know' she was pregnant....

..the daughter whose baby it really was would have been sent off to mind some aged cousin or some such story, so that the neighbours did not see she was pregnant.

'gran' and 'grandad' then have registered the birth as theirs, and family/daughter's honour would be preserved..........
It was a lot easier to do this years ago, when you did not have to bring proof from hospital/midwife etc. The full cert. would not help in that case, as it will only have on it the names of the parents she was brought up thinking were hers........,

If this was the case it would be pretty hard to verify it, unless father was able/willing to talk about it. I guess dna would prove that he was not the father..........

Is she not able to ask the sister - that would seem the simplest action to start with.........

good luck
Eileen
birth name

Nudge so I can find again